Welcome to Lagos!

I finally watched the three part documentary by BBC and I see why it generated so much furor amongst bloggers,Nigerians and foreigners!

Before I watched the series I wondered what all the noise was about and I could feel myself being pulled by the currents being made by my countrymen. I admit that with all I had read about it, I thought it was a film made to discredit us but I was in for a pleasant surprise. While I do not endorse foreign news bureaus who many times have shown only one side of the story which is unfavorable, I do not think this particular series is an injustice to Ngeria.

For one the stories told were very well crafted. I found many of the characters interesting. It is a shame that though I grew up in Lagos and live in Ebute Meta which is a stone throw from Makoko the 'Venice like city' depicted in the documentary I had no idea that people lived like this in Lagos. Lagos is popularly called Eko for Show but this side had nothing glamorous about it at all.

I believe that the documentary did not start out to depict Lagos in all its glory and though I may disagree with the title 'Welcome to Lagos' the story revolves about how people make a living from doing things that many people would not touch with a 10 foot pole. The men who work on the dump are industrious and are trying to eke out a living for themselves For example Slender Vocal who nurses dreams of being a Music star and Joseph who has a family and two daughters to look after. It shows the resilience of a group of people who have every right to give up and moan about their problems but do not.

I loved Part One and Two the best. For the Venetian dwellers in Makoko, Chube was an especially delightful character. A man with 18 children who eats every night with his whole family is someone to be admired, he certainly knows how to keep his family together. I hope that Payo his son who he fortified with charms against knives and bullets (I smiled at this point) would turn out to be worthy of his family name like his father desires. The only part I was squeamish about was the crude sewage disposal system. Here Chube is seen with his head above the planks that make up the outhouse saying the lagoon would wash away the smell and human waste, that was not funny but it is the reality these people face everyday.

For the cow brokers, the blood meal seller, the supposed university student who fells trees in the forest and floats them down to lagos to sell, these people are all examples of how enterprising Lagosians and those who flock down to the city to strike gold are. I do not believe the man who claimed he was a university student really is a student, he could hardly string one sentence together in English! How did he ever get in if he truly is in school? The young boys that work in the saw mills should be in school not working in places where their corpses can be taken back to their villages in coffins bought with contributions of their fellow workers.

Anyway to cut my summary of this piece short, I think all the noise about the series is not necessary. Instead of crying about discrimination by the foreign press, there is plenty we can do. We can arrange to have the workers at the saw mill kitted out in safety boots, gloves and other protective equipment. The boys working at the mills can be taken out of those places and given an education that will set them up on the path to a much better life. We can continue to press the government to address the issues of housing, light, infrastructural developement etc for the country. I see the documentary as a challenge for change not one that seeks to mock us. For once at least we are not depicted as cunning fraudsters who dupe victims in other countries!

The documentary 'Welcome to Lagos' is an apt summary of the lives of another side of the Lagos we do not get to see everyday. For those of you who have not watched it yet please do, I am proud of my people who work hard to make a living in the worst circumstances, they deserve to live and work in better conditions but unfortunately they dont.

P.S- I watched part of it with a friend and her husband, my friend rolled with laughter almost throughout the time she watched it, she loved it and her husband was visibly angry at the end of the time we spent watching it. I guess watching 'Welcome to Lagos' can be said to provoke two main reactions- Anger and Laughter!